Product Spotlight: Pillows/Sleep Gear

fitzfizz · March 2020

Each week we'll spotlight a new category of product. Feel free to comment on threads like these throughout your time at the board, not just when they're in their week in the spotlight, if you discover something new OR are new to the board. This week it's.... Pillows/Sleep Gear!

FTMs are encouraged to ask questions & STM/+s encouraged to share their knowledge based on experience. You can use any or all the prompts relevant to you below to share info in an easy-to-read format. Pictures/screen grabs, if put in spoilers, are welcome!

For all....

What vitamins or supplements do you recommend or not recommend?

Next up: Baby Carriers!

anitamargarita_82 · March 2020

We have a halo bassinet. It was great for my daughter. When she came home from the nicu she was only 4.5lbs so I was super paranoid about her sleeping. She was in the bassinet on my side of the bed. I really loved the little night light, music, and vibrate feature on it. I’d wake up and turn the night light on to check on her. It’s just bright enough to see the baby but not enough to wake her up. She slept swaddled in a Dr. Browns sleep sack.

I will say as a preemie parent I was warned strictly against the Owelet sleep sock thing. The doctors in the nicu were very clear that they wouldn’t be sending her home if she wasn’t ready to go. And that it causes undue stress to parents if it goes off due to it slipping off or something. But that’s not to say that it might be beneficial to parents if you bring a baby home on oxygen or with some other major medical issue. Then I could see a use for it. Just my .02.

profmcgonagall · March 2020

@anitamargarita_82, I’m with you on the owelet. If baby needs it, they should be sent home with a medical monitor. I read a study recently where babies who were hospitalized were put on the owelet as well as their normal hospital monitor and the owelet was consistently showing lower oxygen saturation than the hospital monitor which can cause panic for no reason.

coldbrew · March 2020

I’m going to have to completely disagree about the Owlet (just my opinion of course).

I had a baby who came home after 2 months in NICU and the owlet was a god send. Not only did it give me peace of mind, but I was able to sleep better than after having my very healthy DD1 who didn’t have one.

Pillow wise, I don’t have a specific brand but I love the U shaped one! It cradles you on your back and you can stick the other side between your legs for comfort.

Baby sleep wise, we had the Halo swivel bassinet and really liked it.

profmcgonagall · March 2020

I 100% recommend a pregnancy pillow. I have a half moon one and it was amazing last time especially after you can’t sleep on your back anymore.

For baby, we use a pack n play for the newborn stage. My favorite swaddles we’re love to dream because they can keep their hands by their face. It saved our sleep.

mkp0903 · March 2020

@anitamargarita_82 I agree on the owlet. It causes more harm than good in my opinion. If you truly need a pulse ox, the NICU will send you home with one. They are very unreliable and result in a lot of unnecessary worry and ER visits with newborns (terrible idea to come to the ER with a newborn unnecessarily, especially during flu and RSV season).

Sleep pillows are a must must must. I had the u-shaped one from the same brand as the snoogle. I have it on standby this pregnancy.

MJDsquared · March 2020

I have a snoogle. Definitely necessary later on as I'm not a side sleeper so it helped me!

deaddahliah · March 2020

I loved my snoogle! I never stopped using it after I had my first. Right now I have an knock off and it just isn’t the same.

We mostly used muslin swaddles for baby, but also had a few halo and swaddle me swaddles. Sometimes at night it was just easier to deal with Velcro than doing the whole wrap thing.

NamelessAria · March 2020

I'm going to have the unpopulat opinion that the Owlette was great. I didn't get one because I felt like it was excessive. But then I woke up in the middle of the night one night to my infant daughter frantically trashing in the bassinet. I picked her up and she wasn't breathing. I did back slaps and and eventually she coughed up a giant glob of thick mucous and started breathing again. But she had already started to turn blue and go limp before that happened and it was beyond terrifying. My son was still really young (12 months old) and still woke during the night. Sometimes I would go down to the nursery to get him back to bed and I had no idea if my daughter was OK or having a other episode. A friend had gotten an Owl6fir her daughter who was older at that point so she lent it to me. It was amazing for peace of mind since I knew the alarm would go off if baby started having a drop in O2. And then I could rush in there and help her or call 911 or whatever. It helped me sleep during a stressful time. The pediatrician did some testing but never could figure out what was going on with my daughter. Fortunately she outgrew it but it was so hard to sleep when I felt like I might sleep through an episode and wake up to a dead baby. The Owlette helped me get some much needed sleep during the early days. I know it isn't helpful for every situation. And who knows maybe it never did anything for me other than give me some peace of mind. But even just the peace of mind was worth it. I will say that I never used an Owlette or anything similar with my son and never felt the need to get one. I don't think it would have helped at all and if anything the false alarms would have driven me batty. So I guess its situationally useful, in my mind, but not necessarily useful across the board.

ETA: as far as things to help with pregnancy sleep I loved my back n belly pillow. It let me use my own pillow which was nice because I have bad dust kite allergies plus I drool a lot. I liked having a pillow that was easy to pull out and wash frequently. It always had "arms" on both sides so I wasn't fighting with my pillow in the middle of the night trying to move it to the other side. 10/10 definitely recommend. It did take up a lot of space in the bed but sacrifices must be made sometimes.

fitzfizz · March 2020

We definitely have another product spotlight coming up about bassinets and baby sleep gear, I should have been more clear that this was meant to be more geared to pillows for mom and maternity sleep gear. But thank you all for the helpful information for us FTMs!

coldbrew · March 2020

@NamelessAria I had a similar experience.

TW just in case..
DD2’s owlet went off for low O2 in the middle of the night. She was blue and not breathing, but thankfully she just needed stimulated and was fine. END TW

She ended up with an undiagnosed (at the time) airway condition. An owlet sensor is no different than what we have in the hospital, but it can be applied incorrectly and slip off causing false alarms. As long as you’re a level headed person I see no issue with it. I’m a pediatric urgent care RN at our Children’s Hospital and can’t say we have ever seen a patient come in because their alarm was giving a false reading.

themoonandme · March 2020

I didn't love the Snoogle, but I liked the BBHugMe. It's more like a traditional body pillow, but way better and you can connect the ends to make it kind of like a little nest. I found the Snoogle cumbersome in bed- I roll over a lot and hated that I would have to roll that giant thing with me or do without.

morethanamama · March 2020

I might be the odd one out, I returned the snoogle! It was enourmous and jush overall didn't feel comfy. I just used an extra pillow once I got bigger towards the end of the pregnancy.

kalesix3 · March 2020

Hey, I wanted to know more about others experience with the owlet monitor so I asked over in the questions thread so I don't hijack this one.

Product Spotlight: Pillows/Sleep Gear

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